The Unmanned Systems Forces (USF; ) is a branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Ukraine is the first country to have a separate branch of its military dedicated to unmanned systems. The USF was formally established on 11 June 2024, in the midst of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The USF conducts drone warfare using unmanned military robots on land, sea, and air. The USF does not command or control all Ukrainian drones. The Navy, the Marine Corps and the Air Force control their own drone units, as do most of the brigades and units in the various land-based forces (Ground Forces, Air Assault Forces, National Guard, Special Operation Forces, Communications and Cybersecurity Troops, etc) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
History
Formation On 6 February 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a “On Building Up the Capabilities of the Defence Forces”, instructing the Government of Ukraine and the General Staff to create a separate branch of the Armed Forces dedicated to unmanned systems, after which the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine would consider the issue.
On 10 February, it was announced that Colonel Vadym Sukharevsky had become deputy of Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and would be responsible for the implementation of unmanned systems. Since the start of the fullscale Russian invasion, Sukharevsky was a commander of 59th Motorized Brigade.
On 7 May 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine supported a draft decree developed by the Ministry of Defense and General Staff to formally establish the Unmanned Systems Forces.
On 10 June, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence announced that Colonel Vadym Sukharevsky was appointed commander of the UAV Forces.
Development
2024
On 11 June 2024, the force was formally established. The main mission of the USF according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is centered around "gathering experience, disseminating knowledge, and formalizing these insights into statutes and tactical and operational guidelines" for the Armed Forces.
On 25 June 2024, the President of Ukraine signed the Decree establishing the USF of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Unmanned Systems Forces became a separate branch within the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
On 30 July 2024, a recruitment centre began operating in Lviv, fitted out with drone simulators so that candidates could see and understand for themselves how such aerial vehicles work.
On 3 September 2024, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed Law No. 11507, which defines the Unmanned Systems Forces as the separate branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. On 16 September, the President of Ukraine signed the law.
On 23 October 2024, the chief of staff of the forces, Roman Hladkyi, was dismissed from his position.
According to the CSIS, the USF maintains close contact with 90% of the domestic drone manufacturers, testing new systems and providing feedback to the developers while training drone operators for combat. The CSIS also reported that as of November 2024, the USF integrated more than 170 different unmanned systems.
2025 The 59th Motorized Brigade was reformed as the 59th Separate Assault Brigade and transferred to the Unmanned Systems Forces in January 2025. On 5 January 2025, Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi stated that the USF began deploying fiber-optic controlled drones in response to the Russians making use of them. Syrskyi also mentioned an increase in the number of brigades equipped with enhanced drones and that the Armed Forces were on the final stages of organizing a dedicated unmanned systems brigade.
On 3 June 2025, Robert “Magyar” Brovdi was appointed Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Following the appointment of Robert "Magyar" Brovdi as commander, a 100-day action plan for the Unmanned Systems Forces was made public, setting out a package of measures to transform the USF. Among the priorities identified were the development of a 12-layered employment of unmanned assets in the tactical and operational depth, the expansion of personnel training, the scaling up of munitions production to supply the units, and the employment of unmanned assets in the strategic depth.
Since 1 July 2025, a unified system for recording and verifying combat missions has been in effect for all Unmanned Systems Forces units, and an electronic combat log has been introduced.
As of August 2025, seven Unmanned Systems Forces units entered the top 17 of the “Top-500” ranking among unmanned units of Ukraine’s Defence Forces. Over the Grouping’s first three months of operation, the USF together with the “Drone Line” project increased their share of confirmed strikes from 21% to 36% of the national total.
On 4 September, the USF launched the “PIDRAKHUIKA” online system, which displays units’ verified combat results in real time.
On 30 October 2025, the USF announced a large-scale personnel intake – around 15,000 vacancies. The majority of the positions are intended for drone crews and for specialists from civilian professions: electronics engineers, programmers, designers, project managers, technical maintainers and drone operators.
By the results of October, seven units of the USF Grouping entered the fifteen most effective units of Ukraine’s Defence Forces.
On 1 November, the 411th Unmanned Systems Brigade "Hawks" (Ukrainian: Яструби, transliterated Yastruby) was incorporated into the Unmanned Systems Forces. The same day, the 412th Separate Nemesis Regiment of the Unmanned Systems Forces reported that it had scaled up to a brigade.
On 24 December, the 14th Separate UAV Systems Regiment was officially transformed into the 1st Separate Unmanned Systems Centre of the USF.
2026 On 2 January, it was reported that the 427th Separate Regiment “Rarog” of the Unmanned Systems Forces had scaled up to a brigade.
On 15 January the 429th Regiment “Achilles” was transformed into a brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces.
On 9 March, the 411th Brigade “Hawks” of the Unmanned Systems Forces scaled up to a brigade.
On 10 June 2026, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced, that the 11 of June would become Unmanned Systems Forces Day commemorating their 2024 foundation.
Operations 2024
In mid-2024, the Unmanned Systems Forces claimed to have better quality drones than the Russian Armed Forces, despite Russia having six times the quantity.
As of June 2024, around 3,000 soldiers were reported to be in the USF.
2025 On 14 January 2025, Ukraine attacked Russian chemical factories and energy infrastructure in Bryansk, Saratov, and Tula Oblasts and the Republic of Tatarstan with missiles. The USF claimed that "drones successfully distracted Russian air defences, paving the way for missiles that hit the main targets."
In the late night of 28 January or the early morning of 29 January 2025, the 14th Separate Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Regiment launched a strike on a pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline along the Russian-Belarusian border in Bryansk Oblast reportedly using drones capable of dropping bombs on their targets. These drones carry a FAB-250 M-54 high-explosive bomb on their underbellies and feature an optical sighting system for precision strikes. On 31 January 2025, the Unmanned System Forces confirmed the use of drones carrying aerial bombs. According to the USF Command, these drones are capable of "reaching up to with the possibility of return. This is a unique development that changes the rules of the game on the battlefield."First announced in December 2024, on 13 April 2025, the Unmanned Systems Forces released the first footage of a laser weapon system, called “Tryzub”, in use destroying a fibre optic FPV drone. That day the USF unveiled the “Alihator-9” naval anti-ship unmanned vessel. The unmanned surface vessel itself is a platform on which various munitions can be mounted depending on the assigned missions.
On 9 July 2025, Ukrainian C-in-C Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed that the Unmanned Systems Forces had struck 19,600 targets (one-third of all targets hit) and destroyed 5,024 in June 2025 alone. He also claimed that the USF had killed or wounded 4,500 on Russian forces, of whom 2,548 had been killed.
On 8 August 2025, Syrskyi claimed that the Unmanned Systems Forces' drones hit 23,400 Russian targets and killed 5,134 enemy personnel in July 2025.
On 14 August 2025, the Unmanned Systems Forces struck an oil refining facility of the “Lukoil” company in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast.
On 17 August, operators of the 429th Separate Regiment “Achilles” used FPV drones to destroy a T-90M “Proryv” tank.
On 22 August, the Unmanned Systems Forces struck infrastructure of the “Druzhba” oil pipeline near Unecha in Bryansk Oblast, which led to a temporary halt in supplies of Russian oil to Hungary along that route.
On 18 September 2025, USF Commander Robert “Magyar” Brovdi summed up the first 100 days of work: units had flown more than 402,000 sorties, striking or destroying almost 77,000 targets, while the number of combat crews grew by 49%. Despite the fact that, by NATO estimates, the USF account for around 2% of Ukraine’s entire Defence Forces, during this period it proved possible to introduce an electronic combat log, unified reporting and a multi-layered system for employing drones. In addition, the planning of equipment requirements was automated and a monthly supply of more than 50,000 munitions for unmanned systems, including domestically produced ones, was secured.
On 29 September, operators of the 59th Separate Assault Brigade “Steppe Predators” of the USF used an FPV drone to destroy a Mi-8 transport-attack helicopter.
In November 2025, Unmanned Systems Forces units conducted 108 Deep Strike combat missions, striking 88 enemy facilities, including oil refining industry enterprises and energy and military infrastructure facilities.
As of December 2025, USF drone operators were flying 100,000 to 120,000 sorties a month and had launched combined drone attacks against Russian energy-related targets, particularly Yaroslavl oil refinery “Slavneft-YANOS”, at least 225 times, effectively reducing Russian national oil processing capacity by about 20%. Since the creation of the Unmanned Systems Forces Grouping, more than 50,000 enemy personnel had been hit, of whom more than 28,500 were eliminated.
Deep Strike Centre On 25 December 2025, on the initiative of Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, the USF Deep Strike Centre was created to coordinate and plan complex strikes against targets in the operational and strategic depth. The new structure enables unmanned systems operations to be conducted at long range from the front line.
Over the first 48 days of 2026, Unmanned Systems Forces units struck more than 240 enemy facilities in the strategic depth and in the temporarily occupied territories.
On 18 March, operators of the 1st Separate Centre of the USF struck the 123rd Aircraft Repair Plant in the town of Staraya Russa, Novgorod Oblast.
On 3 April 2026, the Unmanned Systems Forces struck the “Bashneft-Novoil” oil refinery.
On 5 April, operators of the 1st Separate Centre of the USF, the 414th Separate Brigade “Magyar’s Birds” and the 413th Separate Regiment “Raid” carried out a series of strikes on the “Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez” oil refinery in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. The same day, operators of the 1st Separate Centre struck the oil terminal at the port of Primorsk in Leningrad Oblast.
On 16 April, operators of the 1st Separate Centre of the USF, jointly with other components of Ukraine’s Defence Forces, struck the Tuapse oil refinery, which forms part of the “Rosneft” structure.
On 19 April, operators of the unmanned surface systems squadron of the 412th Separate Brigade NEMESIS intercepted a Shahed-type strike UAV using an interceptor drone launched from an unmanned surface platform.